


Worth It

by ProdigyBlood



Category: South Park
Genre: Angst, Kenny in limbo, M/M, Oneshot, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 08:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25467454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProdigyBlood/pseuds/ProdigyBlood
Summary: Kenny McCormick is trapped in Limbo while he waits to return to his body. Despite knowing better he can't help but think about Kyle...
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Kenny McCormick
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in a poor attempt to conquer writer's block. Not sure it worked. Not sure it's any good either. Gonna post anyway

The darkness stretched out for an eternity, unyielding and cold like it was a prison. Like it was _his_ prison, made solely to trap and torture Kenny alone. He clenched his fists and bit his lower lip against the chill as he waded through the dark. Whatever the black fog was, it was unnatural and restrictive like being thigh-deep in thick, swampy waters. He knew he could walk forever and not find the exit. The exit could only be found on its own terms and until it deemed Kenny ready, he was stuck in this godforsaken limbo. He should be used to it by now, he figured. He’d been here so many times before. He was a frequent dweller in the In-between which, in itself, was uncharted territory. One was not meant to punch their card more than once in such a place. It was a waystation, a pit stop, a place to gather your bearings and accept that you were dead before making your way to the next stop.

For the first ten years of his life every time Kenny died – which was a lot – he had to endure the whole process. First, there was the death, more often than not painful and traumatising, then limbo and then, depending on whether he’d been good or bad (seriously, did they coordinate with Santa?!) he’d go to Heaven or Hell. Then, after a varying amount of time, he would wake up in his bed, very much alive. It was his curse, he’d quickly realised, to repeat the process again and again and again.

At some point, Heaven and Hell had grown bored with that little dance. There was probably paperwork they had to fill out; Kenny couldn’t really blame them. Either way, one day after he died, he didn’t leave Limbo. He was stuck there in that empty darkness for an undetermined amount of time. At first, he thought it was a one-off, a glitch, a _mistake_. Then he realised the cold truth, that even in death he was a burden. Even in death nobody wanted to deal with him.

There was no escape. Not from life or death or Limbo or even his damned curse. Kenny wasn’t meant for better things. He wasn’t designed to be seen or _heard_. He was just… there to suffer. If his suffering meant that the people he cared about didn’t have to then, _damn_ , he’d take it. He would spend an eternity in Limbo for Karen, Keven, hell, even his mom. He’d even do it for Stan, for Butters, for Cartman, for… _Kyle_. 

No. Kenny had promised himself enough was enough. Kyle was… a dream. Kyle was unattainable and Kenny had had enough of dying to try and get his attention.

Not that that was his intention, of course. Even if Kyle didn’t remember his death after Kenny came back, splattering someone with his blood was pretty low down on Kenny’s list of successful wooing tactics.

Still. He didn’t know if it were a part of the same curse or a different one or even just a cosmic joke but somehow, every time Kenny tried to tell Kyle, he would die.

It was time to stop. If fate was against them then so be it. Kenny couldn’t bear to keep ending up in this soulless void where he was unable to tell if it were minutes or hours passing. It could even be days. Here, in the nothing, he felt as if he were suffocating. Death was painful but this was worse. Here, in Limbo, he could do nothing but think about Kyle. Kyle, his straight best friend.

To stop his loved ones suffering, Kenny would endure but suffering for an impossible romance doomed for failure before it even began… well, that was just plain cruel.

It was probably for the best that he died every time he tried to confess. At least that way he couldn’t be humiliated by the rejection he was sure to face. He knew it was just the fear talking, that Kyle wasn’t the sort to make him feel bad, but Kenny couldn’t stop the insecurities that niggled away at him each time he waited for his body to wake up in bed as if it hadn’t been slammed over the trunk of a car, or ripped to slivers by bullets or, on one memorable and especially odd occasion, shredded by the talons of a pterodactyl.

“ _Kenny_?”

Great, now he was even hallucinations Kyle’s voice. That was new. Usually, Limbo was painfully silent. Kenny hadn’t realised just how noisy the world was before the first time he experienced Limbo. Even in silence, there would always be some kind of noise: a fly buzzing, a clock ticking, the wind howling… In Limbo, there was just _nothing_. And, because he wasn’t strictly alive, he couldn’t even calm himself with the reliable sound of his heart beating or his breathing.

_“Kenny? Please wake up–”_

Why was his mind so damn cruel? Pining after Kyle was bad enough when he was alive, why did his voice have to haunt Kenny even in death? Couldn’t he just catch a break?

_“Please, Kenny. Don’t die.”_ Kyle sounded heartbroken. He was definitely crying. Kenny frowned, his eyebrows knotting together as an impossible thought occurred to him. Was he still alive? Sure, he was in Limbo, but perhaps there was still a part of his soul clinging onto life? Maybe it was clinging on to Kyle’s voice, begging him to stay alive. 

Or, more realistically, this was just the next step. The next piece of torture Kenny had to endure. He was being punished. Whether for something he did in a past life or his parents’ sins, Kenny didn’t know. He didn’t really care; it wasn’t like it made any difference. His life was always going to suck and there was nothing he could do to change that so did it matter who’s fault it was?

As he heard Kyle’s voice call out his name again, Kenny allowed his weak legs to give way. He fell heavily to the… was it ground? Kenny walked on _something_ while in Limbo, but it never quite seemed like a floor. _Unimportant_. Pulling his knees up to his chest, Kenny buried his head in his legs, desperate to escape. He wanted the torture to end. He wanted Kyle’s voice to go away.

“ _Kenny_ ,” came Kyle’s ragged voice. Kenny didn’t want to hear it. Regardless of whether it was real or not, it was next level torture, the cruellest of the cruel. Give him Hell over this. Each of Kyle’s sobs felt like a knife to the gut. “ _Please don’t die. You can’t die. I…”_ Kyle choked off and Kenny started rocking his hunched-up body. _Too cruel. Too cruel._

_“I never had the chance to tell you…”_ Kenny’s head lifted a fraction. What hadn’t Kyle told him? Not that this was real but still –

_What if it was?_

_“I never told you that I love you…”_

Kenny’s eyes flashed open.

_Could_ this be real? A fire in his chest he could not tame hoped it was. Didn’t Kenny deserve something good? If his life had to be shitty in every other aspect, couldn’t he at least have happiness with Kyle? Then again, his last six deaths had all occurred when he’d tried to tell Kyle about his feelings. Even if they were reciprocated, there was obviously something out there – some kind of force – trying to keep them apart. Kenny wasn’t sure he had the energy to fight something like that. He was just tired. He was –

_“I love you, Kenny,”_ Kyle said, his voice strangled as he forced the words through his tears.

Fuck it. What was one more hardship? What was one more fight when his life was already a battle?

Kyle Broflovski was worth it all.

Regardless of how many tries it took, regardless of how many deaths he had to endure, Kenny would persevere. Kyle loved him back and that was worth everything. Kenny would die a hundred deaths so long as he could hold Kyle in his arms and tell the idiot that he was worth it.

And it was. Worth it. Kenny may have been ready to give up but, as always, Kyle had given him a reason to keep fighting.

Kenny would be damned if he didn’t take it.


End file.
